Hockey is a family affair

Kings captain Dustin Brown with his three sons, dad and other family and friends on the ice at Staples Center. Photo by Rich Hammond

The Kings began to party a few seconds before the final buzzer at Staples Center on Monday night and may not have stopped yet. Many of the players brought their children, wives, parents and friends on the ice for the post-game celebration. Then they adjourned to the dressing room under the stands. Then they moved up to the restaurant at Staples Center to mingle with team officials, media and more family and friends.

Sometime late in the night, the players and their entourages moved to the North End Bar and Grill in Hermosa Beach. It's apparently sort of the house bar for the Kings, most of whom live in the South Bay beach cities. "The Stanley Cup was on the bar," owner John Courts told the Times. "To see it in the house, to touch it, it's just special…. I'm really speechless."

The Times story on the bar also has a video clip of Dustin Brown's sons drinking chocolate milk from the Stanley Cup in their backyard today. Photos of Brown and his sons with the Cup have been some of the most endearing images to come from the celebrations. For people who just see hockey players as ruffians with missing teeth, all this loving family stuff must be a little destabilizing. Another of the fun images from last night was goalie Jonathan Quick's two-year-old daughter Madison charmingly disrupting a live television news conference that starred her father and coach Darryl Sutter — until Madison showed up. Twice.

Dustin Brown, by the way, is scheduled to bring the Stanley Cup on Jay Leno's show tonight at 11:30 p.m. on NBC. Other players are said to be dropping in on Jimmy Kimmel at midnight.

On Wednesday, the Cup will be brought onto the field at Dodger Stadium before the Dodgers and Angels play. There was a loud ovation in the stadium Monday night when the crowd was told that the Kings had won the Stanley Cup. Vin Scully also called in to ESPN Radio this afternoon to congratulate Kings play-by-play man Bob Miller during the Mason and Ireland Show.

The Stanley Cup has been at Dodger Stadium at least once before. In 2002, when Kings legend Luc Robitaille won the Stanley Cup while playing for the Detroit Red Wings, he brought the Cup to Dodger Stadium to show it to fans. In fact, he rented a bus and took friends to exhibit the cup all over town, including Universal Studios and the Hollywood sign.

Finally, on Thursday the Kings will hold their championship parade downtown on Figueroa Street, starting from the intersection with 5th Street at noon. There will a free but ticketed [and now sold out] rally inside Staples Center at 2:30 p.m. and you apparently need a ticket to get into the LA Live area.